Why No One Under 30 Answers Your Voicemail

By Sam Ali
Aug 9, 2010

To understand the generational divide that exists between older and younger workers in today's workplace, consider the simple case of voicemail. Try leaving a Gen Y employee or colleague a voicemail message, and see what happens. They're not going to hear it. Gen Y members tune out practically any communication effort they perceive as unsolicited or spam.

"If you send a message on voicemail or send an e-mail, they are likely to ignore it," says Jeff Schwartz, U.S. and global talent leader at Deloitte, No. 25 in The 2010 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity®. "It's very frustrating to our leaders, most of whom are boomers [and] some of whom are Gen X'ers. When they broadcast voicemail messages, big swaths of their organization are not hearing it. They're not even listening to it and they're not even sure it's directed to them because they don't think about being communicated with in that way. CEOs or HR leaders or business leaders think they're sending a direct message, but that is not the most effective way to communicate across the generations." the rest

This is the first time in American history that four different generations are working side-by-side in the workplace, bringing their own values, goals and communication approaches to the workplace.